Venice's Ghetto

The oldest ghetto in Europe has five synagogues,
a Jewish museum, and a kosher restaurant.

by Durant Imboden

Today,
the word "ghetto" has a negative connotation, being associated
with modern urban slums and the persecution of Jews in Central Europe during the
Nazi era. But in 1516, when an enclosed neighborhood for Jews was created in
Venice, "ghetto" referred to the foundry that the district replaced.
What's more, the intention wasn't to persecute Jews per se: The Venetian
Republic segregated its Jews to placate the Roman Catholic Church, which had
already forced the expulsion of Jews from much of Western Europe.

ABOVE: The Campo del Ghetto Nuovo, or "New Ghetto,"
in Venice, Italy. Despite the name, it was founded earlier than the adjacent
Ghetto Vecchio ("Old Ghetto").

The Ghetto both isolated and protected the Jewish residents of Venice who
lived within its walls. In The
Venetian Ghetto, Bernard Dov Cooperman
writes:

"The Ghetto's Jews did not refer to their enforced
residence as a jail. Rather, it was a biblical 'camp of the Hebrews,' a place
of Holiness on the way to the Promised Land. In Verona they declared a public
celebration of its establishment. For the puritanical young rabbi,
Samuel Aboab, who had first seen Venice as a 13-year-old student, the
city's Ghetto seemed Isaiah's Jerusalem .... Aboab's attitude tells us much
about Venetian Jewry's intense efforts to order their enclosed world; his
choice of words tells us even more about how these Jews identified with their
community-behind-walls and gloried in it."

Cooperman adds:

"Throughout the Mediterranean region, it was quite
customary for foreign merchants to be housed in a separate quarter....When we
try to evaluate the Venetian Ghetto, we must remember that sixteenth-century
Venice also restricted the living quarters of Turkish and German
merchants....The Venetian Ghetto always served both religious sensibilities
and commercial needs. It allowed Venice to maintain its religious purity while
reacting to changed economic conditions."

Life in Venice's Ghetto

LEFT: Façade
of the Scuola Italiana, or Italian Synagogue, in the Ghetto Nuovo.

The Venetian Ghetto was a crowded place, with a population that grew as Jews
and conversos (Jews who nominally had converted to Catholicism) came to
Venice from other countries of Europe and the Mediterranean. By the mid-1600s,
Jews controlled much of Venice's foreign trade, and it wasn't long until
immigrant Jewish physicians, lawyers, and scholars played important roles in the
daily business of the Venetian Republic.

During the day, Jews were allowed to leave the Ghetto to work and play
throughout Venice. Gates were locked at nightfall and guarded by watchmen who
were paid by the Jewish community. (In practice, the law wasn't always enforced,
and it wasn't uncommon for young Jewish men to party after dark in the Catholic
areas of the city.)

As the population increased, more space was added by annexing the neighboring
Ghetto Vecchio, or "Old Foundry" area in 1641 for Levantine Jews (some
from the Ottoman Empire, others descendants of Jews who had been expelled from
Spain and Portugal in 1492.)

Apartment densities were increased by adding
floors and, where necessary, lowering ceilings in existing houses. Some
buildings reached six stories--an unprecedented height for Venice. Yet despite
the amount of housing that was crammed into the Ghetto's modest boundaries,
there wasn't enough sleeping space for the estimated 5,000 Jews who lived in the
district before the European plague of 1630 that killed a third of Venice's
population.

Daily activity in the Ghetto was both colorful and lively. In
Venice
and Environs: Jewish Itineraries, the authors write:

"The merchants brought oriental customs with them.
According to Leone da Modena, 'they prayed after the Turkish manner.' They
also wore turbans, while the women wore expensive clothes, costly jewellery
and tall stiff caps decorated with precious stones. A far cry from the modest
habits of the German Jews.

"With the arrival of the so-called nazione ponentina
(the Sephardic Jews) in 1589, the Venice ghetto took on its definitive form:
loan banks and second-hand cloth shops and various synagogues distributed
aound the main campo....the ghetto became a centre of trade not only
for Jewish residents and visitors but also for the Christian Venetians, who
poured into the district every morning when the gates were opened."

"...Within the gates of the ghetto there were not only
places of worship and study but also a theatre, an academy of music and
literary salons. The main calle of the Ghetto Vecchio was lined by all
sorts of shops from those selling everyday supplies to the booksellers in
Campiello delle Scole. There was also a twenty-four-room hotel at the Scuola
Levantina, an inn and a hospital."

ABOVE: Modern street life in the Campo Ghetto Nuovo. (The
plaques of a memorial to Venetian holocaust victims are barely visible on the wall at left.)

Ethnic rivalries and synagogues

The Ghetto may have been populated by Jews, but it wasn't a melting pot.
Residents came from a variety of countries, cultures, and social classes, making
clashes (or at least open hostility) inevitable. This was most obvious in the
building of synagogues, which eventually numbered five: one each for the German,
Italian, Spanish, and Levantine communities, and a fifth--the Scuola
Canton--which may have been French, or may have created as a private synagogue
for the families who undewrote its building expenses. (All five synagogues
remain. Three may be visited on a public tour, and two others--both in the
Ghetto Vecchio--are used for religious services on an alternating summer and
winter schedule.)

Freed by Napoleon, persecuted by Hitler

As Venice went into economic and political decline in the 1700s, the Ghetto
sank with it and was forced to declare bankruptcy in 1737. Sixty years later,
Napoleon's troops brought an end to the Republic of Venice. The Ghetto's gates
were torn down, and Jews were given the same freedoms as other citizens of
Venice. Many Jews chose to continue living in the Ghetto, however, and the
Ghetto remained a focal point for the Venetian Jewish community until the German
occupation during World War II, when some 200 Jews were deported and killed
between 1943 and 1945.

Rebirth of the Ghetto

The Jewish community in Venice has experienced a modest rebirth in recent
years. About 500 Jews live in Venice, although the Ghetto itself has only about
30 Jewish residents. Religious services take
place in either the Scuola Grande Spagnola or the Scuola Levantina. The
neighborhood has several Jewish shops, a book publisher, a social center, a rest
home for the elderly, a museum, a yeshiva, and a kosher restaurant (run by Lubavicher Jews whose rabbi came to Venice after 20
years in Bologna).

Tours
of the Ghetto are available year-round at the Museo Ebraico
(Jewish Museum) in the Campo Ghetto Nuovo, which has a large
collection of religious objects and silverware. The tour has several morning and
afternoon departures and lasts about 40 minutes. The price is a bit steep, but
the three synagogues included in the tour are worth visiting if you're even
remotely interested in Venetian history or Jewish culture. (You can also buy a
combined ticket for the tour and the museum.)

Tip:

Skip the tour if you aren't able to climb stairs, since the Ghetto Nuovo's
synagogues were built above street level for reasons of space, security, and
religious law.

Where to stay and dine in Venice's Ghetto

You'll find two hotels on the Campo del Ghetto Nuovo:

The
Locanda del Ghetto
is a "Town House Suites 1st Category" property (the equivalent of a three-star
hotel) and has excellent guest ratings.

The
Kosher House Giardino dei Melograni has 14 one- to four-bed guest rooms
overlooking a canal or the campo. Shabbat meals are available, and mikveh
baths are on the premises.

A short walk away, next to the Cannaregio Canal, is the
Gam Gam kosher restaurant.
Gam Gam has Venetian, Italian and Israeli dishes on its extensive
menu. You can dine in or order meals for takeout or delivery to your
hotel. (See our Gam-Gam restaurant review.)

Reaching the Ghetto

LEFT: Bridge
to the Campo Ghetto Nuovo from the Calle Farnese in Cannaregio.

Walk or take the vaporetto (water bus)
to the Guglie stop on the
Fondamenta di Cannaregio, just above the Ponte delle Guglie bridge. You'll see a
low rectangular arched doorway next to the Gam Gam restaurant.

Go through the
arch, and you'll be in the Ghetto Vecchio. Keep on walking to reach the larger
(and older) Ghetto Nuovo, where you'l also find the Jewish Community Museum.

If you're coming on foot from the Piazza San Marco or Rialto,
you can turn right from the Rio Terà S. Leonardo
or the Rio Terà Farsetti and work your way toward the Calle Farnese and its
bridge (see photo above).

Or, if you're coming from the
Madonna
dell'Orto Church or its vaporetto stop, head west on the Fondamenta degli
Ormesini until you see a small footbridge leading to the Campo Ghetto Nuovo.

The
Ancient Jewish Cemetery at The Lido of Venice
Venice actually has two Jewish cemeteries on the Lido: one old, one new. The
older (and smaller) cemetery is said to be the oldest graveyard in Europe,
dating back to a time when Jews were buried in sand on the edges of the Venetian
lagoon.

Jewish Venice
Emissaries from the Lubavitcher Rebe in New York established a local chabad
in 1991; today, the community operates a rabbinical academy, a Jewish library, a
chabad house, the Gam Gam kosher restaurant (see below), and a Web site that
doesn't always work.

The Midwife of VeniceRoberta Rich's historical novel, which is
set in the Venetian Ghetto, has been published in the U.S., the UK, Canada,
Germany, and Turkey.

Related Venice for Visitors articles

Gam Gam
The menu is Israeli and Italian, the staff is Hasidic, and the food is
first-rate at this kosher restaurant in the Ghetto Vecchio.

Locanda del Ghetto
If you're Jewish or simply have an interest in the Venetian Ghetto, try this newish hotel
on the Campo del Ghetto Nuovo.

Madonna dell'Orto Church
Tintoretto's parish church is generously decorated with his paintings, and
it's an easy (and pleasant) walk from the Ghetto Nuovo. At the nearby
vaporetto
stop, you can enjoy a view of the lagoon on your way back to the Piazza San
Marco, the railway station, or the Piazzale Roma.